Aleksandar Alex Kostic

He started training karate in club “Zemun Youth”, whose junior competitor he was while he was attending elementary school. In 1986, after he served in the Yugoslav National Army, he continues with trainings with famous Japanese master Okuyama in Toronto, from whom he received his black belt second Dan. During that period he competed as a senior. During the mid 80’s, while living in Canada he does a research on martial arts on his own and so he was doing kick boxing, Muay Thai, etc. The biggest impression to him was a modernized and modified Hapkido that he was learning from one of the most prominent Korean masters, Hwang In Shik, that was a Hong Kong movie star and played in the early Jackie Chan’s movies The Young Master and Dragon Lord. 

 

He finds brazillian jiu jitsu on a first Rorion and Royce Gracie seminar in Canada and it was a major awakening. In 1995. he meets Vladimir Vasiliev and becomes passionate practitioner. While with Vladimir, he goes to Russia where he trained in various Russian martial art styles like Lyubki, M.Ryabko, Kadochnikov, Slavyano-Gorickaya borba, Skobar…

 

During the time he becomes instructor, then first instructor within the Vladimir’s school (at one point he was leading the trainings in school), and international instructor. Since then he travels across the globe and teaches seminars. While practicing at Vladimir’s, he exploits the phenomenon of MMA which was at the beginning of it’s development at that time, with the professional MMA fighter Antonio "Pato" Carvalho from who he learns MMA basics (Bruckman Martial Arts) and with whom he becomes a close friend.